anomaly

Look up anomaly in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

An anomaly is any occurrence or object that is strange, unusual, or unique. It can also mean a discrepancy or deviation from an established rule or trend.

Anomalistics is the study of scientific anomalies. In computer science, anomaly detection refers to the process of detecting anomalies from the relevant data.

In the following particular contexts, "anomaly" may refer to:

Astronomy

• Eccentric anomaly, intermediate value used to compute the position of a celestial object as a function of time
• Flyby anomaly, unexpected energy increase during Earth flybys of satellites
• Mean anomaly, measure of time in the study of orbital dynamics
• Pioneer anomaly, observed deviation of the trajectories of various unmanned spacecraft
• South Atlantic Anomaly, region where Earth's inner van Allen radiation belt makes its closest approach to the planet's surface
• True anomaly, angle between the direction of periapsis and the current position of an object on its orbit

Geophysics

• Bouguer anomaly, anomaly in gravimetry
• Free-air anomaly, gravity anomaly that has been computed for latitude and corrected for elevation of the station
• Gravity anomaly, difference between the observed gravity and a value predicted from a model
• Iridium anomaly, very rare element in the Earth's crust
• Magnetic anomaly, local variation in the Earth's magnetic field
  • Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, territory rich in iron ores located within Kursk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast, and Oryol Oblast
  • Temagami Magnetic Anomaly, large buried geologic structure in the Temagami region of Ontario, Canada

Biology

• Congenital vertebral anomaly, any of several malformations of the spine in animals and infants
• Collie eye anomaly, congenital, inherited, bilateral eye disease of dogs involving the retina, choroid, and sclera
• Coronary artery anomaly, congenital abnormality in the coronary anatomy of the heart
• Ebstein's anomaly, congenital heart defect in which the opening of the tricuspid valve is displaced towards the right ventricle of the heart
• Uhl anomaly, very rare congenital heart disease with a partial or total loss of the myocardial muscle in the right ventricle

Quantum physics

• Anomaly (physics), failure of a symmetry of a theory's classical action
• Conformal anomaly, quantum phenomenon that breaks the conformal symmetry of the classical theory
• Chiral anomaly, anomalous nonconservation of a chiral current
• Gauge anomaly, effect of quantum mechanics that invalidates the gauge symmetry of a quantum field theory
• Global anomaly, anomaly in quantum physics
• Gravitational anomaly, effect of quantum mechanics that invalidates the general covariance of a theory of general relativity
• Mixed anomaly, effect of quantum mechanics
• Parity anomaly, anomaly associated with parity
• Konishi anomaly, violation of the conservation of the Noether current associated with certain transformations
• Anomalons, odd particle interactions seen in some high-energy physics experiments

Science fiction

• Anomaly as a rift in the space-time continuum in Futurama
• Fortean anomaly, as in the work of Charles Fort
• Spatial anomaly, broad term in Star Trek and other science fiction for any sort of extraordinary disruption in the space-time continuum
• Anomaly, shortcut to hyperspace travel in Robert Heinlein's 1950s novels, today called a wormhole
• Anomaly (comics), DC Comics villain
• "Anomaly" (Star Trek: Enterprise), an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise
• Anomaly (Primeval), time portal in TV series Primeval
• Anomalies, small areas in the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl which have various effects on the game environment
• Anomaly, a bridge to another world in the book series His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman
• Phobos Anomaly, a level in Doom (video game), Episode 1 Level 8
• Deimos Anomaly, a level in Doom (video game), Episode 2 Level 1
• Anomaly as an unbalanced system in The Matrix

Music

• Anomalies (album), 2005 album by Cephalic Carnage
• "Anna Molly" (word play on "anomaly"), song by Incubus from 2006 album Light Grenades
• Anomaly (album), 2009 album by Ace Frehley

Other

• Ararat anomaly, object on Mount Ararat claimed to be Noah's Ark
• Market anomaly, price distortion on a financial market
• Anomaly in software, anything that differs from expectations, whether the expectations resulted from documentation, experiences or otherwise

See also

• Irregular

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